The CO2 Safety Inflator - CO2 is so important a safety device that the U.S. COAST GUARD HAS RECENTLY MANDATED THAT ALL Type III approved inflatable life vests must have such an approved signaling device.

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CRISIS IN
INFLATABLE LIFE VESTS,
CNN SPECIAL REPORT:
Lifejacket Safety Warning!
25% of inflatable life vests without the CO2 Safety Inflatorª do not work!
The news release reproduced below states that 25% of all inflatable life vests serviced by an award-winning life vest manufacturer do not work. This report is statistical confirmation of a crisis in the inflatable life vest industry that the U.S. Coast Guard and manufacturers have known about for decades.

Most of these serious problems exist because these life vests do not have a signaling inflator like The Blue Fin CO2 Safety Inflatorª that automatically signals if a CO2 cartridge is empty, partially unscrewed or missing. This device eliminates the #1 dangers with ALL inflatable life vests pointed out in the CNN article and is so critical that for years the U.S. Coast Guard refused to approve any inflatable life vests without it. On its recent approval the Coast Guard considered The Blue Fin CO2 Safety Inflatorª so important a safety development that it MANDATED THAT EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY ALL TYPE III APPROVED INFLATABLE LIFE VESTS MUST HAVE IT!

ÑCan you risk using a life vest that doesn't work because it has no automatic signaling inflator?

If you want the safest life vest in the world, your only choice is a life vest with The Blue Fin CO2 Safety Inflator!ª

( See more at safetyinflator )

WEDEL, Germany (CNN) -- An award-winning German lifejacket manufacturer has warned that 25 percent of the jackets it services are unsafe.

Ulrich Ehrmann, a spokesman for Bernhardt Apparatebau, based in Wedel, told the Web site of Boating Industry International that many are in such serious condition they would not support a human in an emergency.

Most of the problems relate to the carbon dioxide cartridges used to inflate the buoyancy cells.

"In many cases, the cartridges are either pierced or are empty, or they are missing altogether," said Ehrmann. "That would mean that in an emergency, the automatic inflator would not have functioned, and, had the wearer been unconscious and unable to top-up the lifejacket manually, they would have drowned."

This is why The Swimmer's Safety Belt® is the world's safest inflatable life vest Ñ The Blue Fin CO2 Safety Inflatorª automatically eliminates most of these problems.

Other defects include corroded cartridges, missing protective caps and punctured buoyancy cells. Most of the problems occur because the owners do not follow manufacturers' recommended checks, says Ehrmann.

"Of the lifejackets sent to our servicing department about 20 percent had exceeded the servicing interval."

Bernhardt Apparatebau's Secumar Window range of lifejackets won an award at the 2002 Marine Equipment Trade Show in Amsterdam in November.

[ CNN Europe Posted - Thursday, December 5, 2002 ]

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